Our next Heroes of the Storm patch has just hit the Public Test Realm and will be available for playtesting until May 21. As always, if you encounter any bugs during your PTR play sessions, please stop by the PTR Bug Report forum to let us know about your experiences.

PTR Note: While elements of this event may be visible on the Public Test Realm, any progress or rewards earned during PTR testing will not transfer to the live version of the game when this patch is officially released next week.La Parca Lunara and La Pantera Sonya are looking to recruit new tag-team partners for Nexomania, a contest where Heroes battle it out to become the Champions of the Nexus! Choose your partner, train up, and conquer the competition to claim the spoils of victory before Monday, June 11. Each of the four-part quest chains below grant different rewards based on who you side with, and the quests must be completed in order. Choose your partner wisely, because once you’ve picked Lunara or Sonya, your decision cannot be undone!

Starting the week of May 22, Loot Chests earned through progression (except Hero-specific Chests), Heroes Brawl, or by spending Gems will be Nexomania Loot Chests. These Loot Chests guarantee at least one item from the Nexomania or Sun’s Out, Guns Out events. Step into the ring and start leveling-up to pin down some loot before the competition concludes on June 11!

Please Note: Loot Chests earned prior to the start of this event will not become Nexomania Loot Chests.

Diablo: Diablo and Archangel Diablo’s Abilities have received updated visual effects to coincide with Ability and Talent changes. Garrosh: Garrosh’s Abilities have received updated visual effects. Malfurion: A new leaf icon and timer will now appear above Regrowth targets’ nameplates to indicate remaining Heal duration. The icon and timer will change color based on Regrowth’s remaining Heal duration: from green to yellow at 10 seconds remaining, and then to red during the last 5 seconds.

Players can no longer vote for themselves on the end of match awards screen. This should help encourage players to spread the love by commending others for their epic plays! The number of votes required to achieve epic and legendary commendations on the end of match awards screen have each been reduced by one vote. This has been done to account for the removal of self-voting. Previously, a self-vote could often make the difference for a player who was one vote shy of reaching epic or legendary status.

Visual effects for Movement Speed bonuses and Slows will now only display on units whose Movement Speeds are being increased or decreased by more than 5%. Previously, a Hero could display these visual effects even if their Movement Speed hadn’t been significantly altered. This could occur as a result of multiple stacking Movement Speed bonuses and Slows, or due to a stacking Quest Talent.

Developer Comment: Our goals for Lunara’s rework are twofold: first, we want to add some gameplay to Wisp and consolidate its related talents into something more interesting. We also want to give Lunara more potential playstyles, which we’re doing by adding some new powerful talents into her tree. Because we added so much more power into her talents, we had to reduce her baseline power by a marginal amount to compensate. We’ve had a blast with Lunara in our internal playtests, and we’re excited to release her new and improved version into the wild!

Black Soulstone (Trait) Maximum Health gained per Soul reduced from 0.5% to 0.4%. Shadow Charge (Q) Range increased from 7 to 8.5. Mana cost increased from 60 to 70. Damage reduced from 75 to 40. Terrain collision damage reduced from 150 to 120. No longer grants Armor. Now also increases Movement Speed by 15% for 2 seconds. Fire Stomp (W) Now unleashes fire waves in a large cone in the chosen direction, rather than a 360° area around Diablo. Number of fire waves reduced from 8 to 5. Multiple fire waves can now hit the same target. Cooldown increased from 6 to 8 seconds. Mana cost reduced from 40 to 30. Outgoing fire wave damage reduced from 54 to 12. Returning fire wave damage reduced from 81 to 36. Damage dealt by returning fire waves now counts as critical damage. Now Heals Diablo for 125% of the damage dealt to Heroes. Overpower (E) Mana cost reduced from 60 to 40. Lightning Breath (R) Range increased from 10.5 to 12. Each tick of Lightning Breath damage now also Slows enemies hit by 5% for 2 seconds, up to a maximum of 50%.

Talents

Level 1 New Talent: Feast on Fear (Passive) Stunning an enemy Hero with Shadow Charge or Overpower Heals Diablo for 15% of his maximum Health over 4 seconds. Soul Shield (Active) Moved from Level 7. New functionality: Activate to gain Spell Armor equal to 25 plus 50% of Diablo's current Souls for 4 seconds. 60 second cooldown. Every time Diablo damages an enemy Hero, reduce this cooldown by 1 second. Bulwark (Q) Removed. Level 4 New Talent: Sacrificial Soul (Q) Stunning an enemy Hero with Shadow Charge grants 5 Souls and 15 Armor for 4 seconds. While at 100 Souls, increase this Armor to 30. New Talent: Souls to the Flame (W) Fire Stomp grants 1 Soul every 3 times it damages an enemy Hero and Heals for an additional 1.25% of its damage dealt per Soul. Life Leech (Passive) Moved from Level 1. New functionality: Diablo gains 1 Soul and Heals for 1.5% of his maximum Health for every Basic Attack against an enemy Hero. While at 100 Souls, increase this Healing to 3% of his maximum Health. From the Shadows (Q) Removed. Speed Demon (Passive) Removed. Demonic Strength (E) Removed. Level 7 New Talent: Eternal Flames (W) When Diablo Stuns an enemy Hero with Overpower or Shadow Charge, Fire Stomp’s cooldown is reset. Malevolence (Passive) Using Basic Abilities causes Diablo’s next Basic Attack within 6 seconds to deal an additional 100 Spell Damage. Stores up to 2 charges. Soul Feast (Trait) Removed. Diabolical Momentum (Passive) Basic Attacks now also reduce Fire Stomp’s cooldown. Cooldown reduction granted per Basic Attack decreased from 1.5 to 0.75 seconds. Level 13 Devastating Charge (Q) Adjusted functionality: Now increases Shadow Charge’s terrain collision damage by 100%, rather than a percentage of the target’s maximum Health. Quest: Each time an enemy Hero takes terrain collision damage, increase this bonus by 15%, to a maximum of 75%. New Talent: Cruelty (Passive) Stunning an enemy Hero with Shadow Charge or Overpower increases Diablo's Attack Speed by 50% for 5 seconds, up to 100%.Hellfire (W) New functionality: Each enemy Hero hit by Fire Stomp grants 2% Spell Power for 10 seconds, up to 30%. Fire Devil (W) Removed. Level 16 Debilitating Flames (W) New functionality: Enemy Heroes hit by Fire Stomp are Slowed by 5% for 4 seconds, up to 50%. Heroes Slowed 25% or more by Debilitating Flames deal 50% less damage. New Talent: Overpowering Nightmare (E) Gain 2 additional charges of Overpower, with a 2 second cooldown between uses. Fearful Presence (Active) Removed. Level 20 Dying Breath (R) Now reduces Apocalypse’s cooldown by 20 seconds per enemy Hero hit (to a minimum total cooldown of 5 seconds), rather than reducing its cooldown by a static amount. Hellstorm (R) No longer increases Lightning Breath’s range. Bonus duration increased from 50% to 200%. Lord of Terror (Active) Now also grants 5 Souls per enemy Hero hit.

Developer Comment: Diablo's update aims to give the Lord of Terror more control over his kit and add fun new gameplay without compromising his core identity in the Nexus. We're putting the power in the hands of Diablo players by allowing them to target their Fire Stomps and allowing multiple fire waves to hit the same Hero to help execute the perfect combo. We're adding self-healing to Fire Stomp so that Diablo has a way to maintain his health beyond relying on a Support to heal him. Shadow Charge now grants increased Movement Speed to reduce situations where enemies are just beyond Overpower’s reach after charging in. Diablo’s level 4 Talents all allow him to collect souls in new ways, so he can still get the most out of his Trait during low takedown games. There is also a spiderweb of fun synergies and interactions between the Talents in his tree, so we're excited to see what creative combinations players will latch onto.

Sun’s Out, Guns Out event items have returned for the duration of the Nexomania event! Add them to your collection by opening Nexomania Loot Chests or purchasing the Sun’s Out 2017 Bundle. The following new bundles are available for a limited time! Hell’s Screamers Bundle Match of the Century Bundle Sun’s Out 2017 Bundle

Fixed a number of typo and tooltip errors across several aspects of the game.

A.I.

General: After casting Hearthstone, A.I. Heroes will now wait in the Hall of Storms to restore most of their Health and Mana before leaving. D.Va: Fixed an issue that prevented A.I. D.Va from casting Boosters. Deckard: Learning Bottomless Flask no longer causes Allied A.I. Heroes to remain near a Healing Potion’s location indefinitely. Sgt. Hammer: A.I. Sgt. Hammer will no longer become stuck in a Vent behind the opposing bottom-lane Fort on Battlefield of Eternity. The Butcher: Fixed an issue in which A.I. Butcher would repeatedly cast and then cancel Ruthless Onslaught. The Butcher: Fixed an issue that prevented A.I. Butcher from casting Butcher’s Brand.

Heroes, Abilities, and Talents

Artanis: The Target Purified Talent no longer causes Purifier Beam to acquire Invulnerable targets after its initial target dies. Chromie: Time Traps revealed by Abilities like Tassadar’s Oracle can now be correctly auto-acquired as Basic Attack targets. Fenix: The Talent tooltips for Singularity Charge and Mobile Offense now correctly append to the Ability tooltip for Weapon Mode: Phase Bomb. Garrosh: Casting Into the Fray on Abathur now correctly interrupts Symbiote Channeling. Genji: A damage over time preview now correctly appears in Genji’s Health bar when affected by Lunara’s Nature’s Toxin. Johanna: Can no longer escape Zagara’s Devouring Maw early if Iron Skin expires while inside the Maw. Junkrat: Can now move himself while he is Unstoppable by detonating a nearby Concussion Mine. Malfurion: Reduced Healing applied by Strangling Vines now correctly lasts for its full 3 second duration, even if Entangling Roots expires or its Root effect is removed.Medivh: Dying while attempting to redirect Ley Line Seal after learning Medivh Cheats! no longer causes its targeting indicator to visually persist on the terrain. Nova: Fixed an issue that could cause Holo Decoys to stop attacking nearby targets. Nova: Fixed an issue in which Holo Decoys would not Basic Attack enemy Heroes if Nova did not have enough Mana to cast any of her Abilities. Nova: Armor reductions granted by Anti-Armor Shells and Crippling Shot now stack correctly when applied to the same target. Sonya: Battle Rage no longer grants bonus damage versus Monsters. Tassadar: Plasma Shield Healing done after completing the Khaydarin Resonance quest is now correctly tracked on the in-game stats screen (TAB). Tassadar: The Talent tooltip for Khala’s Light now correctly states that only Heroes will gain Armor when Plasma Shield expires or breaks. This was only a tooltip correction; functionality has not been changed.Thrall: Invulnerable Heroes who are within bounce range after casting Chain Lightning on a nearby target will no longer grant Crash Lightning quest progress. The Lost Vikings: Casting Spin to Win! no longer causes offscreen Vikings to play false “under attack” voice lines. Zul’jin: Using Guillotine with the Buzzsaw Talent to kill Nova’s Holo Decoys or Samuro’s Mirror Images no longer grants Healing.

Sound

Lt. Morales: Replaced incorrect voice processing for voice lines used by the base Lt. Morales and First Lt. Morales skins. Volskaya Foundry: Achieving victory will now correctly cause Overwatch-themed music to play.

User Interface

Loadouts: The Hero’s name at the top of the Loadout pane will now update correctly when switching among Heroes during Hero Select. Collection: Fenix now correctly appears when using the terms “Protoss” and “Dragoon” to filter the Hero roster.

I mean, it seems Dibbles has now much better selfsustain and stuff but i really don't like it. Imo what made Dibbles so cool to play was the really high risk, high reward playstyle. Now he just seems meh

Context, was pumping this out to give people an idea of what I'm running thus far and wasn't really planning it to be a big thing so sorry about that.

On to power level, take everything I say with a grain of salt since he's been out 2 days, but imo he's second in priority after Garrosh in the tank slot. honestly think he's just as strong as live, but just in different ways. His strengths from before aren't there and he no longer is just hit 16 with 100 souls and win the game, but he comes online much earlier and Lightning Breath is seriously a menace with the right compositions.

As for the other builds, I think Diablo's builds are in order FireStomp Build > Auto-attack build (Lifeleech and AS at 13) > Old Standard Q build Though still testing out all 3.

I promise to have a more complete guide up soon, just been a bit busy with scrims and don't feel comfortable giving a full impression only 2 days in.

Once again sorry about that, but hope this shows my original intent which is that new Diablo is a completely different beast than old Diablo.

Also, for those wondering if he's worse than live, the answer is a bit tricky. He fills a different playstyle and role on live. If you try to play him like before, he's 100% worse. The style I've been playing though, honestly he feels almost as strong and is safer to pick earlier in draft. Basically, he traded a bit of strength for safety, but still is plenty strong imo and the safety goes a long way.

Developer Comment: Development on Hanamura is still going smoothly. Unfortunately, it seems all of the noisy construction has irritated the Mega Enforcer who has captured several of our designers and artists. We need to take bring this Battleground offline while we negotiate for their safe release.

Developer Comment: Development on Hanamura is still going smoothly. Unfortunately, it seems all of the noisy construction has irritated the Mega Enforcer who has captured several of our designers and artists. We need to take bring this Battleground offline while we negotiate for their safe release.